Children's pocket money at what age and how much?

jackyann · 17 February 2013 at 4:26PM

I think that you need to begin from first principles - that's what we did, so make these decisions before deciding an amount:

Is any of it tied to chores? If so, you need to be very clear about what chore, to what standard = how much
Is any of it intended for saving? For what? Saving for a specific toy/ game, holiday money, or for something very serious in the future?
Are there any conditions as to what it can be spent on? Can some be spent on whatever the child wants (within the law!) as doing something a bit silly can help with life lessons.
Is any intended for things like school trips, Guides / Cubs / similar organisations? There was a recent thread about this.
Do other relatives give money and how is that intended to be used?
Is there a clothing allowance (once at the age where they want to choose) and what should that cover?

Just for information, this is how I did it:
School trips, youth & voluntary organisations all paid by parents
Serious savings for education by parents
Pocket money was not dependent on doing chores - but there were other sanctions for not doing designated chores. Some extra chores were available for money (window cleaning,car washing)
Half of the money was to be "saved" towards something that should be discussed with us (usually holiday spending money)
Half could be spent on whatever the child wanted.
At about 9 they got a clothing allowance, but I bought school & organisation uniform + basic footwear

Hope that helps

PS: have just recalled that I used to buy one comic / magazine a week each, this was delivered with our newspapers. I found out that they made money on the school bus, by checking out the week's quiz answers (football magazine) before the kids who collected their copy from the newsagent near the bus stop. Oh dear!

pimento · 17 February 2013 at 4:38PM

My son got 50p for every year of his age, so £5 at age 10 and £7.50 at age 15. I meant he got a pay rise every year.

shoe*diva79 · 17 February 2013 at 4:57PM

My 14 year old gets £81.20 every 4 weeks (child benefit) and with that she buys phone credit, clothes, savings, bus tickets, cinema trips etc. at the moment she contributes £20 of this towards a school trip to Iceland (she will be paying £200 of the total cost, plus spending money).

Se earns extra money each month doing little jobs for various people.

valk_scot · 17 February 2013 at 5:34PM

My 11 year old gets £5 a month to her savings book and £1.50 a week to spend on anything she likes. The savings book (I run this, it's just a notebook) also has birthday and Christmas money and any extra she earns in any way. If she wants something special she gets the money out of there but tbh, she's pretty tight with it! I pay for her phone top ups, which are miniscule, clothes, school trips etc but she has to buy her own make up/accessories/sweets/odds and ends. She bought herself a jewellry box last week for example.

DS is 16 and gets £40 in his current account every month and another £10 in his savings account. He also gets school lunch money, fares, school trips paid for and also his phone plan, which isn't that much either. He's good at saving, he bought himself a tablet recently and he has to provide half his spending money for long school trips.

I don't pay for everyday chores, I expect them done as a contribution towards the general housework. There is no refusal option round here for chores such as tidying rooms, hoovering, helping with laundry and odds and ends of housework. There are a few extras that I'll pay for though, such as car washing and grass cutting.

Cash-Cow_3 · 17 February 2013 at 5:34PM

Zero for our two. But we pay phone as long as it doesn't go over monthly contract price.

dll74 · 17 February 2013 at 6:16PM

My (almost) 13 year old twins get £20 per week each. £10 of that is for school lunches - £2.50 each per day Monday to Thursday. The other £10 is to do with what they like.
I don't make them save but they very often do and often have a decent sum tucked away. They have had this amount since before they were twelve and we will probably increase it in the next year or so to £15 plus lunches per week.
I don't make them do chores for the money but expect them to be done as part of helping the house run.
I don't withold the money as punishment either but ground (Daughter) or remove Playstation (Son) if need be.
They usually buy magazines/cinema or swimming trips/birthday presents for friends/pay for bus fares with theirs.

pigpen · 17 February 2013 at 6:33PM

None of mine get any. If they need money for something like cinema for example I rarely say no.

wannabeasupersaver · 17 February 2013 at 6:54PM

Thanks for all your input. It's interesting to find out what others do. My LO is only 4 but this morning we were putting his pocket money he got from a relative in his box along with the coppers laying around and it got me thinking about it. Again thanks x

System · 17 February 2013 at 7:04PM

From about age 6 i got £2 a week, then when i was about 10 my mum made it up to £5 and that was until i was 18.

jjblondie · 17 February 2013 at 8:55PM

I was just given money as and when I needed it, such as to go to the cinema, until I was about 15. My dad then decided having a monthly allowance of £50 would stop me buying so much rubbish. It did. However, my Nan still gives me pocket money despite my protests...I'm graduating in June!